Bane of Titans
by en extase
Summary: "Trust us." With the Female Titan drawing closer, Petra's words echoing in his ears, his companions falling one after another, and his instincts screaming - Eren makes his choice. And bites his hand viciously. Eren x Mikasa, Levi x Petra. [Divergence fic]
1. Trust begets trust

**Bane of Titans**

_Chapter I / Trust begets trust_

by en extase

The very ground beneath them trembled with each colossal footfall of the Female Titan, almost in tandem with his heartbeat. The giant sprinted with a level of coordination none of them had ever seen before from its kind. Its terrifying silhouette was backlit by a corona of fiery light, the last gasp of a bloody sunset.

It wrought a trail of death and mayhem, the shattered corpses of slain companions and horses strewn behind it on the main path. A handful of Survey Corps soldiers flew alongside it, weaving their desperate dance between the opposing treelines. They were little more than mere, brave specks in comparison to its immense frame. The glint of their twin blades were frail slivers of ice, melting instantaneously in the heat and reappearing a split second later. Shards of broken swords fell like molten rain.

And it was _gaining _on them, their lead dwindling even as the Special Operations squad urged their fleet-footed mounts to their limits.

_This was no mere abnormal._

Eren gritted his teeth together, almost biting his tongue at the wildness of the ride. He seized the reigns with both his hands, tightening his hold as his anxiety mounted. Wrenching his gaze from the carnage scarcely a hundred meters behind, he looked ahead.

The pathway cutting through the forest was infuriatingly straight and seemed never-ending. There were no trails branching off, nowhere to go but forward.

At this rate, the Titan was going to overtake them before they could exit and regroup with the rest of the formation. They'd have to scatter and take to the trees and make their stand there.

_What the hell __are they thinking? _

Commander Irvin had ordered the central column into the cover of the woods as a last-ditch gambit to use the height of the trees to their advantage. If they couldn't cripple or kill this monstrosity – and it seemed like all their efforts couldn't even _slow it down _– in the Forest of Giant Trees, then they stood zero chance once they ran out of the room. They were dead without the maneuverability afforded to them by their Three Dimensional Maneuver Gear. The Female Titan had torn through an entire flank and showed no signs of letting up. With the masses of lesser titans outside still to contend with, the fight on the open plains would turn into even more of a bloodbath.

_"We're going to keep advancing on horses until we're clear."_

Levi's words repeated themselves over and over in his head and Eren wondered whether the whole world had gone mad.

The sickening sound of crunching bones _(another human life being extinguished) _pierced through the storm of his thoughts, and a new wave of anguish washed over him.

"Another person has just lost his life," he yelled desperately. "There was a chance we could have saved him!"

He looked to his left and right, and knew by the other riders' devastated expressions that they were thinking the same thing. Eld couldn't meet his gaze and his mouth was set in a hard, thin line. Gunther looked like he was on the verge of breaking ranks and moving to the embattled surveyor's aid, orders be damned.

Yet they all held to their course.

He risked a quick glance backward. His heart leapt at the sight of a solitary soldier fighting to keep pace with their pursuer, harrying it with strikes aimed at its legs and ankles. Anything to slow it down.

The Female Titan had almost singlehandedly obliterated the outermost right flank of the Corps to breach this deep into the formation. He had not the slightest inkling whether Armin and Jean had survived and whether it also crushed the forces Mikasa had been stationed with.

How many more people needed to die?

"The other one is still fighting courageously! If we go _right now_, we can still make it in time-"

"Eren!" Petra shouted, her voice overriding his in volume. "Look in front of you and keep moving!"

She pulled abreast of him, and he craned his neck to meet her gaze. Her face was flushed from the wind and adrenaline.

"Are you telling to me to just close my eyes to the battle happening behind us?!" Eren demanded. "To leave my comrades to their death and run for my life? Is that it?!"

Her stricken expression made him regret his words, but it was gone in a second, replaced by the hardened gaze of one of the most renowned Titan killers of her generation.

"**_Yes!_ **That is precisely what I expect of you!" she snapped, "Obey the Captain's orders!"

The frustration was pushing him past the breaking point. He was surrounded by the most skillful hunters alive with hundreds of titan kills between them. Their comrades-in-arms, the Captain's loyal men, were dying, and_ they were not going to engage_.

"I don't get it!" Eren cried in utter bewilderment. "Why must I let my comrades die? And why aren't you telling me why the hell all of you are unwilling to let me help them?!"

It was like a chain reaction; first Petra's, then his, and then Oluo's composure was next to crack.

"'Cause the Captain judged it's not something he should explain, that's why!" he hissed, "You don't get it 'cause you're still a sucker wet behind the ears! And now that you know this, shut up and obey!"

Eren did shut up. He looked over his shoulder again, watching the lone soldier fight anxiously. It was agonizing to watch the ferocity with which he struck, forcing the Female Titan to raise her arms to ward off his blows. He knew that one could only fight at that level for so long.

His mouth thinned and a dark coldness entered his expression. _  
_

Humanity's most skilled warriors were fighting with all their might to keep him out of the Female Titan's grasp. They were paying with their lives.

_I can fight alone just fine, can't I... why should I depend solely on my human abilities? I can go and help him on my own. _

Slowly, he released the reins with his left hand and raised it closer to his mouth.

Petra noticed, and fear flashed across her face.

"Eren?! What do you think you're doing?! You're only allowed to do that when you're in danger!"

His teeth brushed the skin of the edge of the palm, between his thumb and index finger. He had the power to turn everything around with one clench of his jaw...

"You promised us, didn't you...?" she whispered.

All of them fell silent, every rider watching him out of the corner of their eyes. Waiting to see what he would do.

Gathering his resolve, he began to press down and felt his skin begin to break -

"Eren."

His gaze snapped up to Levi's back. The Captain seemed as aloof and composed as ever.

"You're not in the wrong about this," he said in his soft, detached way, "If you want to do it, do it."

Petra's eyes widened.

"Captain?!"

"He's a real monster," Levi stated, grey eyes flicking to his shocked lieutenant briefly, "I can tell. And it has nothing to do with his 'Titan' power. Now matter how strong the cage he's placed in, no one will be able to make his spirit submit to their will."

Eren mulled over the words, brow furrowed.

He'd been given the right to make his own choice.

"The differences in judgment between you and us originate from different rules derived from past experiences..."

This time, Levi did look back, meeting his gaze solemnly.

"Choose."

From the Captain's tone, Eren knew that he'd been given an order.

"Will you trust yourself... or will you trust me, them, and the Scouting Legion as a whole?"

He remembered Thomas being snatched from flight by the first aberrant the trainee squadron had ever encountered. He thought of the others who'd followed his reckless charge over the rooftops to cover him, and died for it. Mina and Mylius, and the rest of the 104rth who had seen the fallen district of Trost become their graves. And years before that… when the Colossal Titan revealed itself outside of Wall Maria and the Shiganshina District…

He clenched his fist and stared at it, his mind racing.

"I don't know which option you should choose... I could never give you advice on that... I can believe in my own abilities or the choices of companions I trust. No matter what choice you make, no one will be able to tell you if it's right or wrong till you arrive at the outcome. So choose for yourself whichever decision you'll regret least."

And every time, the rage, the grief, the helplessness…

He looked back again at the relentless Titan and the dogged soldier. The lone warrior was still moving swiftly, but the telltale signs of fatigue were starting to show. How he was a little less sharp than a minute ago. How he was a split second too slow making the sharpest turns as he rounded for the next strike. The massive swings in momentum were draining him bit by bit.

Time was running out.

_No._

This time, he was _not h_elpless.

"Eren…"

He wrestled with the warring splinters in his mind, one pushing him to rush to join the soldier and bring down the Titan, the other urging him to place his faith in humanity's best. And there was something... else, at the edge of his consciousness. It was halfway between a memory and a premonition but he couldn't make anything more of the vague feeling. He frowned but let it go.

Could he do this?

_We're sorry Eren, we got scared and did something stupid, and you must be disappointed in us. But still, one person can't do much just on their own. _

_That's why we take action as an organization. We rely on you, and we'd like you to rely on us. _

_We'd like you to..._

"… Trust us."

Worry marred Petra's pretty features.

His gaze drifted to her hand and lingered there a moment before he tore it away, blinking. Images came to his mind unbidden. He remembered Petra smiling as she showed him the livid, bruised skin on her hand, the imprint of her teeth. It was seared into his memory forever. All of it. The moment he'd felt the sudden unwinding energy of the transformation taking as he strained his injured hand to pick up the fallen spoon. The squad members drawing their swords in alarm, their frightened faces as the animalistic kill-or-be-killed instinct asserted itself. The Captain calmly standing between his subordinates and Eren, on the verge of retching and attached to the malformed Titan skeleton, and ordering them to stand down.

Hange's excitement as she rushed to the skeleton's arm. The pensive expressions of the others as they listened carefully to the explanation of how his unintended transformation had occurred. Their suspicions and fears defused. Guilt as they realized they had been irrational in their reaction to them and had treated him unfairly. They shared a wordless glance, and with a unified understanding lifted their arms and bit down on their left hands, signifying that a bond had been formed between the veterans and their young newcomer.

The Special Operation Squad's first sincere (and slightly eccentric) gesture of acceptance.

A serene calm settled on him.

He looked at Petra.

"I do trust you," he said warmly, a small smile wavering on his lips.

He glanced around at all of them. Levi's back was turned to him again, but Eren knew the Captain was listening.

"I trust_ all_ of you. But you have to do the same for me," he raised his voice, fervor coloring it. "Captain Levi, everything you've spoken is true... but you're wrong about one thing..."

His conviction grew. The more thought about it, the more he believed that this would work.

"I **do **know the outcome of my choice. If the Titan wants me so bad, it'll have to defeat me, and that won't happen since you guys have my back... you see, that's why the outcome is beyond doubt. So let's attack together, and crush this monster with the might of the Scouting Legion!"

The din of clashing blades and Titan skin rang in his ears as he looked around. Grim resolve shone in their eyes and the nature of the ensuing silence had subtly changed.

"I'm ready to go with Eren!" Gunther announced. "What say you?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty much sold too," Eld joined in, a tad grudgingly. "I'm not one to hang back and let my allies fight without me."

Eren gave a sidelong glance at Petra, his throat dry.

She bit her lip, clearly struggling with conflicting feelings over his declaration. The moment passed, and then she heaved a long, exasperated sigh. She'd been the voice of reason, the most ardent in objecting to his intentions to intervene. But seeing the resistance to Eren's idea melt away on all sides, she knew the fight was lost.

"Oh well... The truth is, we all got to where we are because of choices like this, right?" she admitted, before giving him a reassuring smile. "I'm in."

They all looked to their leader.

Levi gave an almost imperceptible nod.

"So be it."

The Captain's word had been given.

"Okay okay, nice speech. There, you happy?" Oluo grumbled, rolling his eyes. "Now that's the plan of attack?"

_Straight to business. He must be annoyed,_ Eren thought with a grin.

"Full head-on assault," he stated as he straightened, voice brimming with a strange confidence. "Right now we're still too far for it to recognize which of us is which. If I go in first and you guys keep riding ahead, it'll think I'm still with you guys. It'll disregard me as another soldier coming to reinforce his comrade. I'll transform when it's too late for it to change course, and that's when the rest of you attack. We overwhelm it and bring it down."

"That will have to do," Levi said curtly. "Let's go."

Eren nodded bravely though his heart hammered in his chest. He twisted in the saddle and reached into his jacket, unhooking the grappling propulsion pistol from its holster on his gear harness. Squeezing one eye shut, he took aim. His arm tracked upwards as he internally calculated how far he could reach with the length of the wire. He blew out a breath, banishing all residual doubt. To maximize the chances of surprising the Female Titan with his attack, he would have to gather as much momentum with possible.

He pulled the trigger.

The hiss of compressed gas leaving the cylinder was drowned out by the sudden clamor of the wind, and he was sailing through the air. He gritted his teeth as the hook reeled him after it, rising higher and higher like a skyward arrow. The lapels of his jacket fluttered and in the periphery of his vision his father's key glinted quicksilver in the sunlight as it dangled on the chain around his neck. Everything in sight aligned itself into crystalline clarity.

It connected, the barbed hook burying itself into the trunk of a passing tree at the twenty meter point above its roots.

He allowed his upper body to fold backward and his legs to swing above him as he shot past the anchoring point of the first hook. He reverse-somersaulted to carry his momentum forward as the line tensed, disengaging just in time. In a smooth motion he drew both blades, fingers settling automatically over the two triggers arrayed one atop the other that were built into the hilts and merged with the crossguards. His fingers pressed down to launch more wires and steady himself into an upright position.

He ascended higher.

The Female Titan noticed his advance but no light of recognition dawned in its eyes. He was right so far - it was dismissing him as no more than another soldier rushing to throw his life away. A nuisance to be swatted from the sky in contempt. It was storming perilously closer, he could feel the vibrations of its approach traveling through the air. The gap separating them dissolved even more swiftly as he put himself on a collision course with it.

Grinding his teeth together, he disengaged the grappling hooks and now flew freeform. The forest canopy was not far overhead. He sheathed the swords and raised his left hand to his mouth.

The point of no return had come and gone.

_I've never been this high in the air before, never this close to the sun... _he thought.

His whole world narrowed to the Titan, the true scale of its size dawning on him.

But he was not intimidated. His bloodlust sang to him as he hurtled downward like a falling comet, the wind howling in his ears. Dimly, he heard the cries of his companions rise from behind them as they made their move, abandoning the deception and launching themselves into the air and setting after him.

The Female Titan's eyes widened as it discerned his facial features and recognized him for who he was. It was too late to alter course. It should have been more cautious.

Hange's words were his last conscious thought. _In all the cases you successfully transformed, you had a clear objective in mind..._

He knew his objective.

He bit his hand viciously and tasted blood.

... ... ...

For a moment, an aura of light engulfed Eren's airborne form. Then, an eruption of fire split the air asunder. The towering trees themselves bent before the force of the shockwave that rippled through them, blackening as if their life had been stolen. Flametongues spread outward in every direction from the epicenter of the explosion before terminating into nothingness. Steam materialized in the aftermath, wisps of it billowing like the fringes of a funeral shroud.

And through the veil of vapor, 15-meters of humanity's anger made manifest emerged.

The monstrous Titan's maw unhinged and opened, unleashing an earth-shattering warcry as it lunged through a rainfall of the ashes of withered leaves and crashed into its rival.

The battle was joined.

... ... ...

_So yay or nay? This is the first time I've written outside of Harry Potter, so hopefully it was good. Leave a review if you'd like to see more. _


	2. The Might of the Scouting Legion

**Bane of Titans**

_Chapter II / The Might of the Scouting Legion_

by en extase

They met with the sound of a thunderclap. Gravity and momentum were on Eren's side, magnifying the force of the collision. He clasped his arms around its midsection even as it raised its arms in a last-minute guard and the behemoths tumbled down the narrow corridor of the forest pathway, locked together.

Even as its black slammed into the ground, the Female Titan bared its teeth and twisted its body sideways, throwing its foe over it and trying to dislodge him. Eren held on, refusing to relinquish his grip as they rolled over one another, lambent dust rising in their wake.

Eren's back slammed into the ground once more and this time, he acted. Midway through the rotation he planted a knee, and then as the centrifugal force pulled his body upward, swept his other leg outward. Malachite-green eyes locked with the wide-eyed stare of the Female Titan above, the pupils slitted into crescents like a cat's. Their gazes broke - then, with a deafening roar, he used the dying momentum and his low center of gravity to yank his adversary out of the air and heaved with all the strength his Titan form possessed, hurling its body sideways with enough force to cleave through a half-dozen trees overlooking the path.

Blackstone pines that had for centuries held watch over the highroad broke as if they were nothing more than twigs. The sound of timber being torn rang out like gunshots. .

Eren slowly pushed himself back onto his feet, muscles tightening from exertion. His shoulders rose and fell as he sucked in air greedily.

He stole a glance over his shoulder and saw the figure of the surviving rearguard soldier, darting from tree to tree, and felt an intense joy.

There was a sense of focus that had only come to him gradually in Trost. It wasn't calmness for he could feel the festering rage that simmered beneath the surface. No… this was what wolves felt when they circled fawns, watchful for the slightest signs of weakness.

_Inhale, exhale. _

He was in control this time.

He was _awake_.

Raven-dark locks of his shaggy hair fluttered in a rush of wind as five streaks of green and glimmering steel shot over his shoulders one after another.

…

The way in front of them was shrouded in dust. They navigated their way uphill through the collapsing trees, kicking off the falling trunks as they reeled themselves higher through the maze of the forest. The sound of timber shattering came from behind as Eren followed, brushing aside the trees as they plummeted with casual ease.

Petra launched herself off the last of the broken trees at a downward angle, the forest floor rushing up to greet her. She did not need to look to the side to know that Oluo was keeping parallel to her, or that Eld and Gunther were bringing up the rear, or that Levi was shadowing them from above.

At the last second she injected more tension into the wires, pulling smoothly out of the dive barely a meter from the ground. The pneumatic hiss from her squadmates' gear kept a constant tempo - a church choir could have sung their litanies in time to it.

The dust cleared and they got their first good look at the Female Titan.

It was climbing to its feet, and was a grisly sight to behold. It was noticeably feminine with its more angled facial structure and breasts jutting out below its exposed collarbone. Most strikingly, its lips were scarlet red whereas the mouth of Eren's Titan form was lipless. A sleek musculature lined its body, made all the more obvious by entire stretches of it being skinless.

None of it gave the Special Operations Squad any pause. The gruesome lack of skin just made seeing the vital organs easier.

The tip of her tongue stuck out unconsciously as Petra focused on its knee, mentally marking the sinews that were hidden from sight. Lessons taught by ink and blood came to her a flash, drawings of Titan anatomy she knew by heart.

Like lightning they struck.

She twisted to the side, entering a spin just as she reached its legs and dragging her blades through the hamstrings behind its knees. Her wrists screamed as the cords of sinew were torn through but she held onto her swords and felt the last of it give way. Oluo criss-crossed her path, ahead of her by a split second. They were gone in the blink of an eye, too fast for the blood they'd drawn to even taint the metal.

The Female Titan buckled and began falling forward - taking it straight into the path of Gunther and Eld. They cut the shoulder tendons and its arms fell limply. It managed to catch itself on its left elbow below, the detrituts of dead organic matter thrown up all around it.

It had taken countless trials to perfect the timing and calibration. But once they'd mastered this first-strike maneuver, it hadn't failed even once. 10-meter class, 15-meter class, aberrant - it demolished them without distinction.

Petra wheeled around, eager to watch the last phase.

Watching Levi was like watching an artist at work.

Levi's wires was a step ahead, the grappling hooks already sinking into the trunks of a triad of trees surrounding the Female Titan as he landed on the back of its bowed head and launched himself toward the forest canopy. Like a slingshot, he flung himself straight down, entering a spin. His blades whirled around him in a cyclone of metal, his signature maneuver.

_Over so soon? _

After all of the havoc it had caused, this was… a disappointment. She'd expected a tougher fight from the Female Titan.

A guillotine of diving death, the Captain's freefall terminated and at the last turn brought both blades together, throwing all of his weight into the killing stroke. He had killed a hundred Titans alone like this singlehandedly, carving out the flesh at the napes of their necks with surgical precision.

The blades shattered.

… … …

His arms were numbed by the massive blow he'd landed. Levi blinked, staring blankly at the sheen of glittering, translucent crystal that hadn't been there the moment before. A faint cluster of hairline fractures at the contact point were the only testament that his blades had even touched the Female Titan. There was a sharp stinging sensation on his face and a feeling of hotness intertwined with it.

_That was… unexpected. _

"Captain! Get away from it!"

Eld's tenor came from somewhere behind him - the tall blonde was closest and had seen what happened. Already he'd gotten past his shock to arrive at urgency, pleading Levi to get out of there.

"What happened?! How'd it not die?" Petra's voice came from further away.

"It's on the move!" Gunther warned.

His body was already moving. He stepped backward as a hand landed heavily where he'd stood a second before and fired a line to take him out of its strike zone, watching the Titan's prostrate form in consternation.

He inwardly scoffed at his squad's worry as he glided through the air.

_I'm the last person you have to worry about…_

He would have to berate them later.

He landed a good distance away from the slowly rising Female Titan, choosing a perch a good twenty meters from the ground. He reached up to his face and felt the source of the stinging sensation, just below his eye. His hand came away covered in blood. It was a shallow cut, made by one of the blade fragments.

It had come a little too close to his eye for comfort.

Irritated, he thrust the empty hilts into the slots of the sheaths hanging by his hips and hit the side triggers, feeling the satisfying snap of the internal locking mechanisms being activated. The new set of blades gave a metallic rasp as they were drawn.

The feeling still had not returned to his arms. He rolled his shoulders, trying to get his blood to circulate.

His squad reached him.

"It hardened its skin!" Oluo said, disbelief lacing his words.

"Titans aren't supposed to do that!" Petra protested, landing on the branch just below Levi's.

"Evidently this one can!" Eld said, pointing out the obvious.

Petra resisted the urge to roll her eyes.

The Female Titan was lumbering towards them in spite of its pronounced limp. Its regeneration was potent, already it had recovered a degree of mobility. Any other Titan of the 14-meter class would still be lying helpless.

"Okay, we know it can protect its neck. And maybe other parts of its body as well," Gunther spoke, "What's the plan now, guys?"

An ear-splitting roar rent the air and Eren came howling into the fray, his human squadmates scattering just in time before he barrelled into the Female Titan. It feebly tried to defend itself, but its injuries prevented it from giving as good as it get.

… … …

The gathered soldiers in the clearing were on edge, their hackles raised by the dying echoes of the Titan's roars in the distance. The last of the Special Target Capture Weapons had been mounted. They were stationed everywhere, with several on the ground level and more along the entire heights of the trees, and altogether covered a field of fire so expansive not even the most massive of Titans could slip through. The crews manning them were on standby and though they were too disciplined to show signs of restlessness, but they were still only human. Nervousness and the uncertainty that always came with waiting to use weapon that had just completed development lurked in the back of their minds. This would be the first live test. They'd only been briefed after the expedition had already left the gates in order to maintain its secrecy.

Hange glared at one of them as she caught someone's trigger finger twitching. It was a subtle motion, but not enough to escape her eagle-eyed gaze. The crewman looked down guilty. She glanced aside to the Commander, who was standing beside her. His expression was, as always, inscrutable.

That was his strength as the leader of the Survey Corps - that he betrayed nothing, even the slightest measure of doubt. But it also perturbed her in situations like these. Those sounds they were forced to stand idle and listen to were evidence that his grand plan had gone very, very wrong. And still, his features were impassive like those of a statue.

"... Don't you think we should intervene?" Hange asked, a hint of sarcasm in her tone.

"Our lookouts on the highroad last reported three minutes ago," Irvin said quietly, staring down the path, "Levi's squad was accompanying Eren, and the Female Titan was still being harassed by the rearguard… I do not believe Levi and his squad could have fallen so quickly."

He turned to look at her.

"Do you?"

The notion was so ridiculous that she dismissed it out of hand.

"Of course not," she said.

"Then they are fighting alongside Eren," Irvin said simply, "We don't know if the boy acted on his own or with the Captain's permission, but either way, Levi and the others are with him. Not even an enemy of this caliber can take all of them at once."

Hange bit her lip but raised no objection.

_Fine, _she thought, hoping Levi knew what he was doing, _Deviate from the plan if you must, but make sure yours works. _

_… … …_

Mikasa's blood ran cold.

Beside her, Sasha jolted in surprise at the sound, her foot almost landing on thin air. Her arm shot out, grabbing a hold of Mikasa's cloak. Like a stone, Mikasa did not budge, unbalanced not in the slightest even as her friend clutched at her desperately as an anchor. The implications were horrifyingly clear to her.

"Um, isn't that Eren?" Sasha said nervously.

Her friend didn't answer, grappling gun already raised.

"B-but, we have to keep our posts, don't we?" Sasha pointed to the thronging Titans at the forest edge, clawing at them in vain.

Mikasa looked at her flatly.

"Fine, I'll keep watch," she squeaked.

"Thank you, Sasha."

She fired and headed toward the source of Eren's voice. A knot of anxiety formed in the pit of her stomach, but she refused to jump ahead to conclusions.

_Please be alright..._

_… … … _

"Captain!" Oluo called to him from his upper left, "Kill or capture?"

"We'll try to get the kill again," Levi said slowly, monitoring the duel with a contemplative expression, "We sheer so much of it off that it can't do shit to defend itself - then we hit the nape in succession. That crystallization technique isn't unbeatable - I saw cracks in it after my blades broke. We just have to soften it up. As long as just one of us is left by the time we break through, we win."

Their movements were guided by pure habit as they repositioned themselves, maintaining a moving circular perimeter with the Titans at the center. They were ready to intervene should the need arise. But the truth was that it was little more than a symbolic gesture; all of them watched in awe as Eren laid into his wounded opponent without restraint.

It was a one-sided battle to say the least.

"Maybe we won't have to…" Petra muttered, voicing their thoughts aloud as she watched in admiration. "Go Eren!"

Her little cheer fell on deaf ears.

Eren's Titan form fought like a berserker of lost olden civilizations. His fists flew through the air with such reckless abandon that the raised arms of the Female Titan were buffeted from side to side, only just able to shield itself. It was barely hanging on, cornered with its back against the unyielding wood of a great pine that dwarfed even the others. The blows that slipped past connected with the exposed rib cage of the Female Titan and fractured bone. He rode the wave of rage fuelling his Titan form, driving powerful haymakers that kept the helpless Female Titan pinned down against the shuddering tree at its back.

And then it was not so helpless.

Eren's fist thudded into the wood behind where her head had been a second before in a spray of splintered bark – and then a howl of agony forced its way out of his lips as the Female Titan surged forward suddenly, slamming its forehead into Eren's nose and sending him staggering away. Steam billowed from his wounded face and by instinct he raised his hands to cradle his head protectively.

It lunged forward again, dropping low in a sweeping leg maneuver that toppled Eren. He fell with a crash. The resurgent monstrosity straightened, regarding its downed opponent silently.

That was their cue.

"The hell?!" Gunther exclaimed as he leapt into action. "It's still standing?"

The Female Titan was forced to forego its offensive, instead being driven away from Eren as the Squad intervened. It moved back, trying to ward off the blows that came from every angle. It reacted fast - this time, many of their strikes were met with a layer of crystallized skin and they only scored superficial wounds where it did not bother to protect itself.

Levi shadowed the outskirts of the battlezone, ready to intervene, but in the meantime he was watching with a sense of dawning realization.

This time, the Female Titan was expecting them and the fighting was much more frenetic. Beads of perspiration ran down the faces of his squadmates with the effort of maintaining their high velocity. Anything below full throttle and they would be demolished just like the rearguard squads that had fallen to buy them time. They pulled out all the stops to keep any of its attacks from connecting, ramping up the pressurization of the propulsion gas and accelerating in short bursts to dart out of the way when it snatched at them and to slip past its guard.

It had already revealed its little secret and was making liberal use of its crystallization ability. Crystal sprouted like a cancerous growth in multiples places simultaneously, then receded and sprung up elsewhere just as quickly. But it was limited by how fast its _brain _was processing things - four attackers was pushing its limits and strikes to its joints and tendons were landing before it could raise a layer of crystal to intercept all of them.

But what troubled him most was the fact that it was fighting with the full range of motion it had before they'd crippled it.

_Could it be…? _

He almost grinned at the insanity of it.

Had it _intentionally _taken Eren's assault to its chest until it finished regenerating its severed tendons?

A Titan playing rope-a-dope.

Surviving as long as he had exposed him to some pretty wild things.

Any doubts that there was human intelligence driving this monstrosity were laid to rest.

_No. _

Not just mere human intelligence - whoever was inside, the controller was a true mastermind of the battlefield.

An _ace._

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Eren rise. The shaggy-haired Titan shook its head and glared as it reoriented itself, searching for something to destroy.

Gunther and Eld staggered the Female Titan as they managed to partially slice its Achilles' tendons, their blades just swift enough to break the skin before the crystal materialized there, and already Petra and Oluo were moving in on their targets.

"Disengage!"

His command rang authoritatively through the copse of battered trees. The two smoothly veered off to the sides, away from the Female Titan and back toward the sound of his voice, their wires trailing behind them. All four of them pulled in to regroup, tense and breathing hard.

"Let's give Eren another chance."

Watching the Special Operations Squad display the pinnacle of coordination made it easy to forget that he was in command of a fifth subordinate. Already he was tempted by visions of them fighting but with Eren as an added element.

_I want to see how Eren fights against a proper adversary. _

… … ...

The Female Titan was breathing heavily, resting its side against a tree for support. Wisps of steam radiated from all over its body as torn flesh knitted itself together. It sensed the approach of its male counterpart and turned its. head. Eren strode toward it, his fingers opening and closing as if he were imagining them closing around a defenseless throat. The air around it was heated as if he were a furnace. He uncoiled in a sudden release of energy, and the Female Titan barely managed to move her head to the side in time to avoid a rearrangement of its face. .

The forest was a haze of autumnal colour, the last sunbeams falling faintly through thickets of branches and ending halfway toward the floor. The dying light bled lower into the realm below the treetops, but darkness was falling fast. Shadows entwined with the snakelike roots which rose as high as a man was tall. A stag stopped its grazing and raised its antlered head, ears twitching, and darted away right before the Titans came tearing through the patch of grass. Slivers of bark showered the air as fists smashed into trees, leaving craters where they landed.

Eren was a headhunter, Levi noticed. He threw relatively few body shots, eyes fixated on the Female Titan's face. But though he fought like a berserker like he had earlier, but this time he was more cerebral.

Whether by instinct or conscious design, Eren fought to leverage the additional meter of height he had over his adversary, forcing it to give ground. The Female Titan was lighter on its feet, sliding just out of range of his lunges each time he tried to initiate a grapple. It held its own in a slugging match but Eren was relentless, pushing it back effortlessly. It hardly had time to initiate an offensive. At this rate, the best it could hope for was to let Eren tire himself out - but by the time he started to fatigue, Levi's squad would be ready to step in.

Levi caught the sideways glances the Female Titan shot to the Special Operations Squad as it mentally kept track of their locations.

_Has it accounted for us too? _

If it had reached the same conclusion as he had, then it knew that waiting out Eren wasn't a viable strategy.

He waited as it hopped backward dodging the next succession of blows, biding its time a little more.

Both Titans were enshrouded in steam by the time they pulled apart, shoulders heaving from exertion.

The reprieve did not last long. Eren began moving, picking up pace and breaking into a full-out charge. The Female Titan tried to sidestep but he moved with it, closing in with a massive uppercut that whipped its head to the side and put it on the backfoot. Another blow drove into its stomach, doubling the Female Titan over. Eren seized fistfuls of its hair with his hands and rammed his knee into its face, making it topple over onto its back.

Giving it no time to recover, he straddled the Female Titan's prone form. He raised an arm and tensed, bringing it crashing down, but it was able to shift its head far enough left so that his fist thudded into the ground instead. The impact was such that his hand shattered, the fingers crumpling with bone fragments of the hand structure pulverized, with a stump at the wrist the only thing that remained.

He raised his other arm high above, and brought it down like a thunderbolt. But again he had telegraphed too much of his intent and the Female Titan slid away just in time to avoid it, and that hand suffered the same fate as the other.

Eren stared down at his enemy, infuriated at having to wait for his hands to reform.

He leaned down so that mere feet separated them, and roared into its face. The Female Titan shrank back from him, eyes closing shut. He roared again, this time with even more ferocity, forcing it to turn its head aside entirely and press its cheek against the ground, its golden hair splayed in a messy halo and hiding its face.

The shadow of slender fingers appeared, wreathed in the steam emitting from his wrists.

The Female Titan was not content to wait for his hands to heal.

In a flash it seized him by the forearms. Like an eel, it slid out from under him, its left leg criss-crossing to the other side and hooking around Eren's waist. With a tremendous twisting motion, it toppled him over and freed itself from under him.

They climbed to their feet.

Eren's hands were not yet fully formed but he rushed the Female Titan with a right hook nonetheless. It retaliated, slipping under his extended arm while taking a step forward, its feet crushing the ground below as it drove forward off its rear leg with a strike aimed at Eren's head.

The fist crystallized as it met his face, obliterating the entire lower half of his jaw. Eren staggered from the blow, but steadied himself instead of falling away from it. Before the Female Titan could withdraw, he slid his teeth along its forearm, embers skittering off like fireflies and disappearing as fast as they were born. It recoiled as his forehead smashed into its own in a mirror image of its earlier feint. Eren's arm lanced out and sank his fist into its stomach. The Female Titan's entire body was thrown through the air, slamming against a tree and slumping down to its base.

"It's almost over," Petra whispered.

Eren moved toward it, his steps deliberate. The Female Titan stirred, and dragged itself to its feet. Exhausted as it was, it still summoned its strength to raise its arms in front of it, gazing challengingly at the other Titan.

Eren halted.

His Titan form went abruptly still, as if paralyzed. His mouth slackened and the giant creature simply stared at the Female Titan.

"What's he doing…?" Eld questioned.

None of his squadmates could answer.

…

_That stance… _

Motionless inside the nerve cluster that housed his human body, Eren stared.

He saw not the 14-meter monstrosity, but a blonde, solemn-eyed girl teaching him her martial arts techniques. Sending him to the ground again and again, but patient and ready to go over his mistakes with him when he picked himself back up.

_Annie, is that you...? _

…

The Female Titan lashed out, its strike knifing straight through the tree and severing Eren's head in a flash. Levi's expression darkened as he watched the headless body slowly sink to its knees and collapse onto its front. The head rolled away, the light leaving the eyes.

_What happened, Eren? You were doing so well. _

"I've seen enough," Levi said quietly, then raised his voice, "Cover Eren! Kill it!"

He leapt at the forefront of his advancing squad.

The Female Titan turned to them, its emotionless gaze flickering over their forms.

"Listen!" he shouted, "That Titan is cunning… and we don't know what tricks it has yet to play. We can't give it any kind of pattern or rhythm!"

It burst into motion right as he finished, leaping high into the air and bringing its leg crashing down in an overhead axe kick. They reacted, twisting their bodies in midair and with subtle shifts of their weight snagged themselves out of its trajectory. It split their approach formation but Levi, Oluo, and Gunther were already shaped the arc of their flight to hone in on it from the rear as Petra and Eld scissored in from the flanks. As one, the five of them began their assault.

They had taken Levi's words to heart. A rain of blows drew hundreds of cuts. Some shallow, some deep. A bloody mist tainted the air, drenching them all in it. The air cloyed in a storm of bloodshed, torn cartilage, and shattered metal. Pieces of crystal caught ailing sunlight as they fell like scales being shed.

"This thing's a juggernaut!" Petra said breathlessly, immediately changing course and darting away before its fist could smack her out of the air.

"Everyone, get ready!" Eld bellowed as he leapt straight at it from the front.

The Female Titan reached for him - but he had already acted, drawing the flare-gun and firing. The flare detonated in its face point-blank, engulfing its head in a blue haze. The five of them struck - Petra and Oluo shot through the smokescreen at head-level and took its eyes while Levi and Gunther sliced the hamstrings.

Tendrils of smoke clung to it as its legs gave out and it landed against the tree Eren had blasted it into moments before. It reflexively raised its hands behind its head and covered the nape.

They could instinctually sense the end coming. Their movements sharpened, a second wind revitalizing them and giving them the energy to make the final push.

"Make…"

They dive-bombed it with pinpoint precision, each pass carving away another stretch of muscle tissue layering the undersides of its arms and around its shoulders.

"its arms…"

Their blades rent the flesh unopposed, its crystallization ability seemingly exhausted. They cut deep enough so that the bone was visible.

"... _fall!_"

And the arms fell.

"They're down!" Oluo cried.

They could do this if they could just manage to make its head fall forward. Then hit the nape in succession. The deed was almost already done.

"Now the neck! Shear off the muscles that support its neck!"

"And we can strike its weak point!" Petra shouted.

"Strike the neck now!" Eld bellowed, blades raised above him as he went in.

Its right eye shot open and it lunged, and suddenly Eld was gone. Or more accurately, his upper body was gone from view, trapped in its mouth. It bit down, and blood flew through the air as Eld was bifurcated.

"H-how?!"

The rest of the squad looked on, stunned as Eld's lower half fell weightlessly to the forest floor. Petra flew aimlessly through the air, her sense of direction completely lost. She craned her neck around, disbelieving eyes fixed on the Female Titan as it spat out the upper half of her squadmate.

_Always look ahead. _Eld chiding her gently after she'd downed an exceptionally nasty aberrant while maneuvering backward. She had ended up tangled in her wires. The rest of the squad had snickered at the rookie's predicament. Even Levi had tried to hide his smile. But not Eld.

She was painfully reminded of the lesson as she bounced off the ground. She snapped back to reality, fingers automatically manipulating the triggers to reestablish control so that she was skimming the forest floor. Her mind raced, trying to process what she had just witnessed.

"I-it can't possibly see! It hasn't even been thirty seconds!" she stammered.

She got a closer look at the Female Titan's face as the wind blew the strands of golden hair out of its eyes. Its single eye fixated eerily on her, the other eye socket hollowed out.

"It prioritized one eye to accelerate the healing..." she said aloud, eyes widening.

The Female Titan crouched low to the ground.

"Is that even possible?!"

It took off in a full sprint, headed straight toward her.

"Petra! We need to regroup!" Oluo yelled at her desperately.

But she was frozen, eyes wide and fearful as the Female Titan, for the first time, focused all of its attention solely on her. It loomed greater and greater in her vision, until soon it would overtake her.

… … ...

"No!" Levi shouted.

For the first time he could long remember, fear had wormed its way into his being. He hated the sound of his own voice, robbed of his unbreakable poise and broadcasting his weakness to the world.

He had already lost Eld.

He was going to lose Petra too.

_I won't let it take you too. _

But she had been moving in the opposite direction when they'd pulled away after it had sprung its trap, and been forced to commit when the Female Titan began its pursuit - the rest of them were left in the dust. Oluo and Gunther looked at just a loss as he was even as they set off after them. They all knew it was in vain.

He'd frozen, too, for a sliver of a second, and now he was _too far away. _

And it would cost his friend her life.

He saw something in his peripheral vision. A thin strand of black that was almost imperceptible in the viridian-hued chiaroscuro of light and dark.

He blinked, and when his eyes opened, it was still there.

Petra was too far away, but her wires _were not. _

He reacted without thinking. He ground his teeth, eyes watering as he accelerated through a _hard _hundred-eighty degree turn, reaching back with his sword arm as far as he could.

The forest realm blurred around him, and he blindly hit the side trigger, releasing the blade from its connectors.

It hissed through the air. The extreme maneuver nearly flattened him against a tree but his breath left him in a whoosh as Gunther intercepted him, arm catching him around the midsection and expertly avoiding being impaled on his blades.

Levi's eyes could barely make it out… but his blade flew true. It severed the nearest wire and quivered as it sank almost all the way into the wood of a pine. Petra cried out at the sudden loss of control and crashed into the ground. The Female Titan overshot, its foot smashing into the side of a tree. The other wires thrown in disarray by his gambit and Petra slammed into the ground again and again as she tumbled until she finally came to a rest at the crest of a grassy knoll.

"Damn…" he dimly heard Oluo mutter weakly. "Nice save…"

Gunther released him and he regained the presence of mind to land cat-like on the trunk of a pine, thrusting the sword that still had its blade overhead and hanging from it as he willed himself to calm down.

His heartbeat thudded in his ears as he looked at Petra's unmoving form, drowning out all other thoughts.

_It's okay… she's fine… Petra is fine… you need to pull everyone through this. _

He forced himself to believe that, his grim countenance betraying none of the turmoil that engulfed his thoughts.

_The tide of the battle has turned against us._

In the blink of an eye, they had lost the upper hand. Something bizarre had happened with Eren and he'd been lost. They'd been on the verge of slaying the Female Titan when it revealed yet another trump card, giving it the narrow window of opportunity to kill Eld and nearly kill Petra. And unless he acted decisively, things would cascade beyond control entirely. He tightened his grip on the hilts of his blades, thinking furiously.

Two of their comrades were gone from the battle and Eren was out of commission.

"Captain?"

Gunther and Oluo took positions at his flanks, waiting for his command.

Levi looked to Petra's motionless body. He turned to see Eren's Titan form, headless and billowing steam. And lastly, he saw the Female Titan rise.

He turned back to his two subordinates.

"Gunther, cut Eren out of there. Oluo, take Petra," he said calmly. "Retreat down the main pathway until you reach HQ."

Oluo hovered, looking at him in disbelief. He'd divined his captain's intention.

"Captain-"

"I said **now**!"

The two men exchanged looks, then nodded, splitting in opposite directions. Gunther doubled back hastily, landing on the shoulder of the comatose Titan and began hacking away the membranous tissue shielding Eren at the nape of the neck. Oluo headed toward the knoll where Petra lay.

Levi turned his attention back to the Female Titan, his mind shutting out the moaning of the wind. It was already returning to where it had beheaded Eren.

He sneered at it, his free hand reloading the empty hilt.

"You're still just one Titan," he hissed.

He kicked off, wrenching the other sword out of the pine and moving toward the Female Titan.

There was the fleeting sensation of falling as he left solid footing before the gear caught him and he was gliding toward it, silent.

He pointed the sword in his left hand down, and reversed his grip on the sword on his right so that he held it underhanded. The wind stung his eyes but nothing could dull the image of the monstrosity before him.

Somehow it sensed him coming. It leapt, spinning into a roundhouse kick. He could feel the displaced air ruffle his cloak as instantly created enough slack so that he dropped precipitously before , watching the limb pass inches above him. He righted himself, and redlined it.

He accelerated, moving too fast for the human eye to follow and unleashing a blitzkrieg of slashes. He spiraled around it from foot from the head, opening gashes that fountained blood all along its body.

His muscles burned with the effort it took to restrain himself, of _not _unloading all his power into each and every blow.

At any moment he felt like he could fly off the rails - but he couldn't.

He couldn't let go. Couldn't give in to the chemical concoction of outrage and hatred that was there at the fringe of his thoughts and, kept at bay only by his will. Eren had attacked as if possessed by all the furies of hell and it wasn't enough.

The Female Titan was fighting wildly, herded to where he desired and wholly unable to keep track of him whatsoever. But chance was indiscriminate in who it favored. Once more he felt the jarring impact of his blades meeting crystal at high velocity, shattering. It registered to the Titan and he knew that it had, for a brief moment, gotten a lock on his position. He could see the veins and cords of muscle tighten as its arm moved to snatch at him.

Untroubled, he extended the wires, widening the radius of his circular path around the Titan's torso and swerved past it. He reloaded yet again.

_I'm going to run out of replacements at this rate._

He pushed his maneuver gear to its limits. The gas cylinder was iron hot and he knew the skin beneath his clothing would be livid for days, but he did not care. He saw the back of its hand flying at him at an angle - blind luck. A mocking smile graced his lips as he allowed himself to careen headlong into it. His foot made contact with it, but he timed the rotation from his hips and pivot of his heel with the collision that should have reduced him to gibbets. Like a human buzzsaw he traversed the entire length of the Female Titan's arm, from the center of the palm to the shoulder joint, blood fountaining in his wake.

He was drenched in it, the crimson Titan blood transmutating to steam. His vision swam briefly and he gasped from the heat, but bit down on his tongue, the pain bringing everything back into sharp relief. He could not lose concentration here.

"I have him!" he heard Gunther bellow from below. "Oluo's already got Petra, they're long gone!"

He spared a moment to glance to see Gunther hoist Eren over his shoulder, then turned his full attention back to the Female Titan.

It lurched to the side, losing its balance for a moment before catching itself. It stared after Gunther even as it swayed in exhaustion. The injuries were mounting and it was beginning to take its toll even as his bones ached from weariness.

Still, he smiled.

_Let's have some fun, shall we?_

... ... ...

"Someone's approaching HQ!"

Hange looked up sharply at the lookout who had just landed at the outskirts of the clearing.

"It's one of ours!"

Scarcely seconds later, a dark green shape blurred into the clearing. Her eyes brightened as Oluo landed gracefully, Petra slung over his shoulder. Two soldiers were there in an instant, helping him lower her gently against the tree trunk.

Hange made her way over, walking past the three men standing on the branch and knelt, pressing her palm to Petra's forehead. The skin was cool to the touch, but she could still see the slight rise and fall of her chest.

"She looks bad… blunt trauma, her ribs are broken," Hange fretted, brushing the light chestnut hair out of her friend's face. "Medic!"

"What happened?" came Irvin's voice sternly.

He remained standing at the neighboring pine, arms crossed in front of his chest.

He looked displeased.

Oluo winced.

"We decided to go off-script," he said, looking between Hange and the Commander at the neighboring pine apologetically. "Eren wanted to fight and help save the last soldier from the rearguard, We tried to convince him to stick with the plan, but Captain Levi let Eren make the decision… so we fought it. We were about to finish it off in the first ten seconds, but it's somehow able to harden its skin. Even so, we were about to finish it off when it pulled out its trump card. It can prioritize what it wants to regenerate… It did this right when we thought it was blind..."

He looked downcast, the last part of his report addressed to Hange.

"...We lost Eld."

She blinked, turning away as she cursed the moistness that sprung up at the corner of her eyes.

_Huh? Going to start crying that fast...? _

She released a deep, shuddering breath as Oluo continued.

"We would've lost Petra too, but Levi acted just in time… I just yelled something stupid and useless," he laughed despairingly, running both hands through his hair, distraught.

The lookout cried out again.

"Someone else is coming!"

Gunther appeared, and he too was carrying a motionless body. He shook his head emphatically as the soldiers reached for Eren, gently setting the boy down next to Petra by himself.

His dark eyes met Hange's sympathetically.

"Oluo told you…?" he surmised.

"Now's not the time," Hange spoke, steeling herself. "Where is Levi?"

"He was occupying the Female Titan while we were getting Eren and Petra out…

"How long ago was this?" Irvin demanded.

"Three minutes," Gunther guessed.

Oluo nodded in wordless agreement.

"The Captain is luring the Female Titan here, I think... it's not far behind..."

They felt the faint tremors and the rustling of leaves that heralded its arrival.

"I hope this plan was worth the secrecy," Oluo spat.

The footfalls were getting heavier.

"Everyone, get out of sight," Irvin ordered.

… … …

Mikasa saw the Female Titan bounding ahead and wrung another burst of speed from her maneuver gear. It was blind to the solitary warrior raining blows upon it, sprinting dead ahead without moving its head to check its surroundings. She was too far to recognize the soldier, but his movements were too swift and refined and bespoke too many years of experience for him to be Eren.

The chains of reason snapped and despair clenched at her heart. Where were the rest of Eren's guardians? Where was _Eren_?_  
_

_If it's even touched a single hair on your head... _

… … ...

Levi's fingers fluttered over the triggers in short, fleeting bursts, keeping him aloft and darting out of the reach of any swings of its arm. He no longer fought at full strength, dialing it back. He'd allowed the Female Titan to regenerate its other eye. Both of the orbs were wide open and held a gleam of something between resolve and hysteria.

His earlier assessment came back to him.

The controller within the Female Titan was cunning, even by human intelligence.

But it was also subject to human folly as well.

After destroying the right flank of the entire Scouting Legion's formation, slaughtering many of the elite soldiers assigned to the rearguard, and taking on Eren _and _the Special Operations Squad, it still had enough in the tank to keep going with a singleminded fanaticism.

And that would be its undoing.

_Tunnel vision. _

It had claimed the lives of countless skilled warriors, some of whom he had known well before their untimely deaths. They'd lost themselves in the melee when their concentration started slipping, slaying Titans one after the other and not realizing they were being swarmed.

And he saw it, writ on the Female Titan's face clear as day. Gunther disappeared from sight with Eren in tow and the eyes bulged even more, hardly paying Levi any attention at all. He'd be offended if he weren't so worn out himself.

It could heal its physical wounds, but the true mark of a soldier was how one's _mind _withstood the rigors of battle.

"FIRE!"

His ears were assaulted by the deafening sound of what must have been a hundred cannons firing all at once. He saw the myriad flashes of detonations lighting up the clearing. One moment, the Female Titan's face was within striking distance. The next, its movement was brought to a dead halt.

Countless black cables were attached to it by harpoons, embedding deeply into its flesh. He gazed at it mockingly as he landed on a branch, retracting his hooks.

"You ran out of tricks..." he chuckled.

.. … …

Mikasa slowed to a halt, watching numbly as the Female Titan was brought down to its knees.

She saw him, almost lost in the cacophony of motion. Lying still, his maneuver gear and harness gone leaving him in his tunic and pants, his face pale, but from the composure of those stationed around him - he was _alive. _

She slipped in unnoticed, landing beside him. She was careful not to disturb the young woman laying unconscious on his other side.

She reached out to touch him, almost afraid he would vanish. Her hand brushed his forehead, and she frowned at the heat emanating from him.

_He's burning up... _

There was a feeling of being cheated out of dismantling the Female Titan herself, but all of it, the worry, the anger, melted away at the sight of him.

Eren was alright. That was all that mattered at the end of the day.

… … …

The surviving soldiers of the central column watched the immobilized Titan strain against its restraints. Its muscles quivered as it fought to free itself but to no avail. The black weaves bound its entire body, giving it not even the slightest bit of traction to work with.

A warrior leapt from his perch as the rest observed, bringing his blades on the hands clasped over the nape. They shattered. He rebounded off its neck as three others cycled in, each meeting with the same result.

"It's no use," Hange observed, "Whoever's in there knows the only thing we're interested in now is dragging her out."

Levi nodded in affirmation, looking disgruntled.

"When we were fighting it earlier, it was forced to guess where we struck… now it can just shut off its mind and harden its hands all day long."

"Get the cannons into place," Irvin said calmly, "Amputate the wrists."

"Don't," an exhausted voice murmured softly, "It's not necessary."

Eren pushed himself upright, gathering his legs beneath him. Mikasa's gaze snapped to him immediately. She had not left his side for a moment since her arrival. She reached over automatically to push him back down, but she didn't have the heart to when she saw the look of determination on his face, instead rising with him.

The shifter looked down at Petra, being wrapped in bandages by the medic, a pained look passing over his face.

"Don't Eren!" Mikasa pleaded softly, her hand slipping into his and squeezing tightly. "You've barely had any time to recover."

He squeezed her hand back.

"I have to do it," Eren said, his eyes flashing as he looked at Irvin, "Let me transform again. Don't risk destroying the evidence with cannon-fire."

"Absolutely not!" Hange snapped vehemently. "We don't know what will happen if you transform so soon!"

The prospect of her favorite research specimen risking himself in such a manner made her side with Mikasa without a thought.

"Then this will be the first field experiment, won't it?" Eren shot back.

Irvin appraised him silently and Eren met his gaze, doing his best to will away the weakness from his limbs and stand tall in front of the Commander of the Scouting Legion.

_I have to know who's in there… if ..._

Silence reigned as the Commander weighed the choices in front of him and the two stared at one another across the divide of the twin trees. He didn't know the Commander well. He had neither vouched for him nor condemned him at their trial so Eren had no idea what Irvin thought of him, or his ability to control his Titan form.

But apparently he trusted him enough to shrug dispassionately.

"Very well, Eren Jaegar," Irvin said, "Show me whoever is inside that thing."

"Take a minute to rest, Eren," Levi advised him, raising a hand to grasp his shoulder gently.

Eren wobbled, but steadied himself with a deep inhalation of air. He blew it out, trying to muster up the last vestiges of his strength.

"I'm ready right now," he tried.

"Do it for me," Levi insisted, eyes boring into his, "Give me time to move in front of it... I want to see the expression on its face when it realizes you're back."

He let go and stepped back, holding his gaze for a moment longer before turning and firing a line across the clearing. Gunther placed a hand on Eren's shoulder and squeezed. Oluo glanced at him and looked like he was on the verge of saying something… but thought better of it, instead thumping him heartily on the back, eliciting a deathly glare from Mikasa, and following the others.

Levi landed in the back of the Female Titan's head. He stomped down on it hard to draw its attention.

"I'm looking forward to seeing you face to face," he declared, "and finding out if you can regenerate yourlimbs - _your _limbs, not your Titan's - when _he's _dragged you out of this shell."

With that, he left without another word.

He picked a branch that was roughly level with the Female Titan's head, schooling his features into an impassive mask as Oluo and Gunther joined him.

Mikasa aided Eren down to the ground level with his arm hooked around her neck, taking the pace off the landing. She let him walk forward without protest, watching hawk-like as he approached the captured enemy.

He looked back at her, and smiled reassuringly. Then he raised his hand to his mouth and bit down hard for the second time that day.

Fire blossomed like a hellish butterfly spreading its wings behind the Female Titan, casting a long shadow over the kneeling Titan. Its eyes were frozen open, strands of its hair blowing in front of its face from the gale of wind, heat waves scalding its back.

It trembled as Eren lowered his mouth to its ear, growling and furious.

Then the Female Titan went very still.

It opened its mouth and_ screamed_.

Windstreams swirled around the clearing, blowing their cloaks back and nearly tearing their swords out of their hands. It chilled them to the bone to hear. Not because it was inhuman, but because it _wasn't_. It was primal, the scream of a cornered animal staring down the throat of its devourer. It was something all of them had heard from the last moments of lost loved ones.

The scream was abruptly cut off as Eren tilted his head sideways and brought his jaws together, brutally crushing its windpipe.

The animalistic scream died in its throat, the last of its defiance dying with it. The soldiers in the clearing cautiously lowered their hands from their ears.

Slowly, Eren began tightening the grip of his mouth, and with a tearing motion ripped the head off completely, repaying the favor from their duel.

At long last, the arms fell and the beheaded Female Titan slumped forward, a ragdoll hanging like a fly in a sable spiderweb. There was a groan of metal as the Special Target Capture Weapons strained under the stress, but the cables went taut, and they held.

Eren lowered both hands to its neck, wrenching the decaying crystal plates clinging to the nape and throwing them to the ground. The gathered men and women of the Scouting Legion watched with baited breath as he retrieved the human controller.

He let his arm fall to his side and uncurled his fingers, exposing the object lying in the palm of his hand.

Mikasa's eyes widened.

Murmurings broke out from the rest of the soldiers, now having borne witness to a second shifter in a matter of days.

Levi gazed at it emotionlessly, then departed, heading back down the path with Oluo and Gunther on his heels. To bring a body home.

"Signal the retreat," Commander Irvin finally spoke, sounding tired.

One by one, blue flares launched into the air and were answered in kind. The forest seemed lifeless under the haze of indigo smoke. The husks of fallen trees lay with the broken bodies of Survey Corps soldiers. The cobblestone paving the highroad was stained red with blood. Metallic refuse of broken Three Dimension Maneuver Gear was scattered amid the foliage, hidden by tallgrass and wild flowers that gently swayed in the evening wind. There was no birdsong, the sound of human voices, or whinnying of restless horses. Nothing dared to break the silence that reigned supreme in the darkened heart of the forest.

Encased in crystal, her eyes closed as if she were asleep, was Annie Leonhardt.

… … …

_A/N: How was that for a giant, throbbing update? _

_Thanks for the reviews for the first chapter.__ It motivated me to put in extra man hours trying to get this confrontation right and factor in all the different things, and... I hoped it turned out well. I enjoy reading every single review so I hope you take the time to leave your thoughts and let me know. I'm go__ing to have to jump ship on Harry Potter and write this full-time if you guys keep it up!_

_This is where I'd like your input. I have my own plan for the storyline and I will hedge the story against a few different possibilities. That being said, my goal isn't to predict where the manga/anime goes with perfect accuracy, but to write a good story. I'd like to hear from you guys regarding ideas, speculations & theories about the wall cult, the nobility and royal family, the Sasquatch, the Shifters, Christa and Ymir, the military police and all the different factions, Dr. Jaeger. _

_And spoiler warning at the end right there. _

_Thanks,_

_en extase_


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